Existing enterprise workforce management can include a scenario such as the following example. The network at Bob's enterprise has gone off and he needs a technician immediately. Bob telephones the customer service desk, and the service desk operative uses an off-the-shelf (OTS) workforce management solution (which is integrated into the company's customer relationship management (CRM) system) to determine and confirm the availability of a suitable technician. The technician's schedule is updated on the CRM system and the technician is sent a new work request with Bob's details. Additionally, Bob receives confirmation of the job request.
However, such existing workforce management approaches have limitations. For example, there exists a sub-optimal schedule of the workforce personnel, leading to low productivity as a result of more travel time and less actual work time. Also, there can be a lack of allocation of workforce to customer requests using real-time information. Numerous calls by customers to a customer care center result in an increase in customer support cost and potentially lower customer satisfaction. Further, there exists a lack of smart alert mechanisms using real-time information (for example, location, availability) available easily at low cost from telecom service providers, as well as a lack of a consolidated real-time view of the workforce for service personnel.
Dynamic allocation of requests to service agents based on customer requests and agent's location information, therefore, is desirable. For example, if an agent is taking more time to complete the task at the customer premise due to technical complexities, his other task will get delayed.